[TenTec] Knife switch

[JAMES HANLON]

Rob,

I use banana plugs to terminate the line from my Center Fed Zepp, and to insert a 40 meter quarter wave line in series with the main feed line for cases where the line impedance is not one my tuner likes.  I run 600 watts out of an SB200 through them and they work just fine.

Why not arrange to ground your feedline and your inverted L when you are not using them?  Even a simple rod driven into the ground with an attachment for three banana plugs would be better than just letting the antennas float during a thunderstorm.  You could also make "spark gaps" for them that would arc to ground if they were charged to a very high potential.  

Jim, W8KGI
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rob Atkinson<mailto:ranchorobbo at gmail.com> 
  To: tentec at contesting.com<mailto:tentec at contesting.com> 
  Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 5:18 PM
  Subject: Re: [TenTec] Knife switch


  I terminate my ladder line with banana plugs.  I have a basement window pane
  made with plexiglass and banana jacks spaced 3" in it with a foot of
  ladderline from them to my tuner.  Outside when I'm not operating I simply
  pull the line out of the jacks and away from the house.  This has worked
  for several years.   I have my Inverted L wire terminated in a banana plug
  and I plug it into the center of a UHF coax jack out at the feedpoint when I
  want to operate on 160 m.   When I am QRT and away from the shack I unplug
  it and pull it away from the coax jack which is bonded to the radial plate.
  These banana plugs have worked fine up to full output from my Centurion.
  If a storm gets within 100 miles and I'm operating I quit anyway because the
  QRN is so nasty I'd rather do something else and not have the trouble of
  filing an insurance claim.   And my gear isn't made anymore and there's
  nothing out there new that I want!

  73,

  rob / k5uj